Zap! appeals to a variety of learning styles by featuring high- and low-tech manipulatives, multi-media presentations, role-playing activities, and full-body interactions. Instructions and science concepts are presented through a variety of media. Short video segments replace text panels at seven components that present higher-level scientific concepts or use technically advanced modes of interaction. These video segments feature an actress (referred to as the electronic presenter) and animated graphics to provide brief background information on the surgical technologies, to deliver activity instructions, and to reinforce the links between science and technology.

Relevant National Science Education Content Standards have been assigned to each component in Zap! to support educators who are using this exhibit as a teaching tool. Click here to download an Excel version of the Zap! Surgery assigned content standards. You can also look at the foot of each component page and see listed which standards are supported by that component.

Further, to help educators and science center staff accommodate the different learning styles of visitors, CSC has paired each exhibit component with the applicable learning styles proposed by Howard Gardner in his Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

National Science Education Standards (Washington, DC: National Research Council, 1996), pp. 103-207. You can browse the entire NSES book online at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309053269/html/index.html.